Marie Magnum is a hard boiled private investigator in the post-Singularity city of New Chicago. She and her partner Charlie Chong face off against crime lords, mad scientists, rambling ideologues, and stranger threats.

Marie
Magnum sat in her desk, reading an ancient book, "The Call of
Cthulhu and Other Weird Tales" by HP Lovecraft. On the cover was a
squid headed figure with demonic wings rising out of the ocean.
Charlie Chong walked into the room, holding a pitcher of coffee in
hand and a mug in another.

"Here
you go, Ree," Charlie sat it down onto a coaster on the edge of the
desk. "Put some more of that cog-enhancer nanodrug in."

"You
used vanilla flavor, right?" Marie sipped from the coffee mug. "Eh,
you put some hazelnut in there."

"It
all does the same shit, Ree," Charlie set the pitcher down. "Now,
I'm gonna go man the front door and see who comes in or calls."

"Anyway,
thanks for the book, Charlie!" she replied. "Better than most of
the printed drivel you find today!"

"That
mad Doktor had that on a list of books he was obsessed with,"
Charlie added. "I liked reading it, had a copy, and thought, "What
the hell?" And you do like it."

"Don't
bring up that damn loon so soon," Marie replied. "His ego was
bigger than a Dyson sphere."

"I
just hope we can take him out before then," Marie sipped more of
her drink. "Or at least ain't near him."

"Hey,
we're getting a transmission from a secure line," Charlie noted.
His implant detected a high priority transmission. "Hello?"

The
holo-screen in the center of the office buzzed to life. The image of
a thirty-some year old Hispanic man with a mustache and dark hair
appeared. The NCPD logo appeared in the background. It was obvious
that this was Commissioner Jose Alvarez of the New Chicago Police
Department, or a well done hoax or avatar.

"Excuse
me, are you open for business?" Alvarez's gruff voice asked. "I
hate to call you up so suddenly, but something unexpected's come up."

"Yeah
we are," Marie replied. "Can I help yah?"

"I
have a job for you guys, should you have interest and time," Wilson
replied. "There are some risks, and likelihood you will not be able
to achieve the backup you need. But, the pay will be very good."

"I
have a problem with manpower now," Alvarez continued. "Most of my
guys, gals, and bots are tied up looking for Bizarro and keeping the
clades civil. Singulartech, the Sci-Corps, and everyone else is also
looking for Bizarro. So, I was unprepared when I got reports of
this."

The
image changed to live feed from an underwater camera cross-referenced
with sonar data. There was a large shape in the distance, hidden
under the waters of Lake Michigan. It was an elongated cylinder, and
had a number of transparent viewing decks. It was obvious that this
was a luxury sub of some sort. The conning tower was in some sort of
vaguely humanoid shape. The specifics of the figure could not be
seen.

"This
was a luxury sub called Little
Atlantis,
and it was scheduled to dock here yesterday," Alvarez explained.
"Instead, it's just sat right below the surface, not making
responding to any sort of contact. There's a jamming signal coming
from inside, and we've set up an exclusion zone around it."

"And
ya want us to check it out?" Marie added.

"If
possible, Marie," Alvarez added. "It shouldn't be too hard for
you and Charlie. You'll be well compensated for it. I'll owe you a
few favors."

"How
would we get aboard?" Charlie asked. "I know Ree might try it,
but swimming out there would suck."

"I
have a contact with a minisub who can take you out there," Alvarez
continued. "The sub's got a bay for minisub launching and
retrieval. There's also emergency deep-suits in case it's flooded."

"As
long as we can get some schematics, relevant technical info, and list
of possible reasons someone would want to attack the sub, sure,"
Charlie added. "I don't want to run onto a sub that could be
crawling with hostiles without know who or what we might be getting
into."

"We
can send more all of those," Alvarez added. "So, do we have a
deal? My one request is if that it does turn out to be Doktor
Bizarro, you tell us. No way we can afford letting him to escape
again."

"Will
do, Commissioner," Marie replied. "Just have that minisub
waiting, and we'll get right over."

"It
will be on the North Side Docks, Craft 2 on Pier 16, and use these ID
frequencies to get in," Alvarez said. "Good luck, and keep me
informed on what happens. Alvarez out."

The
commissioner's face vanished as the feed cut out.

"So,
Ree, up for a boat ride?" Charlie asked.

"Marine
salvage normally ain't my thing," Marie turned her head back.
"But I'll make a special case for the Commissioner. I mean, it's
just some cruise for snobs. Could just be them too lazy to tell the
engineer to nanofab a new communications array."

"When's
it ever been that simple, Ree?" Charlie rolled his eyes. "Cripes.
You'd think they assign us some normal cases, like chasing convicts
with parole violations, or watching out for cheating spouses. But no,
we find ourselves dragged into all these nasty situations. There was
that bar fight you got involved in, that time we had to help Doktor
Bizarro…"

"Cool
it, Charlie," Marie sat back. "I don't know who or what caused
the problems on that boat, but no use worrying about it until we get
onboard. We'll worry about that problem when we get there."

"You
know, Ree, you can't always get by on blind luck and
improvisation," Charlie shook his head. "Don't you think you
can look over the schematics to the vessel and come up with a plan of
attack?"

"Eh,
you can do that," Marie mused. "I'll play it by ear. You do it
your way, I do it my way, and so far, they've worked pretty well
together."

"I'm
just worried about when they aren't," Charlie replied. "Anyway,
let's roll out. I want to get back early and catch that new
documentary series."

"I'll
pack some of that special ammo that can fire underwater," Charlie
added. "I'd suggest you'd do the same."

"I
ain't one for planning, but when in doubt, bring lots of ammo,"
Marie replied.

The
two gathered their things, and then headed to the docks. The pier
seemed deserted, and looked like the sort of dock one might find in
any other city. The main difference with the docks of Old Chicago was
most of the menial work was done by robots of various shapes and
sizes. A few operators would take shifts directing them, but the
robots were able to run autonomously if necessary. There had been
much less fatalities at the docks, but unnecessary activity around
heavy industrial machines was discouraged. A few policemen and guards
held a few spots at the dock, normally for port security and holding
NCPD watercraft.

Charlie
and Marie were able to hop a robo-cab and use their clearances to get
to one of the police wharfs. Inside of a boathouse, they found the
contact and the submersible. A robot with blue armor, badge,
light-bulb like eyes, and a distinct retro "Asimov" look sat in a
chair, reading a magazine marked "Custom Robo Monthly." A
nameplate read "Inspector Steele."

"Hey,
Inspector," Marie replied. "We're here on Commissioner's
orders. You have a sub we can borrow?"

"First
one on the left," the robot didn't bother looking up from his
magazine and pointed to one of the parked boats. A few of the vessels
were sleek pursuit craft, some were drones, and a few were subs of
both the manned and automated sort. Most were blue, black, and white
in color. The one that Steele pointed to was a small mini-sub with a
circular hatch on the top, a reinforced bubble, gyrok mini-torpedo
launcher, pair of manipulator arms, and pair of propellers behind it.

Charlie
unscrewed the hatch and climbed in first. Marie followed. Charlie
interfaced with both the wireless and conventional controls. In the
rear of the sub were some emergency masks and suits. However, they
were too big to fit through the hatch. But the rebreather masks would
be useful if they had to bail out.

"You
know how to steer one of these things, right?" Marie said as she
locked the hatch behind them.

"Mostly,"
Charlie replied. "Back in the Sci-Corps, I knew my way around most
things that moved. I've got the coordinates, and I'll plug them
in to the autopilot."

Charlie
took the pilot's seat and locked the coordinates down. The
submersible began to move away from the docks, and then submerge
beneath the murky waters of Lake Michigan. A searchlight activated,
and the area in front of the craft appeared. A few genengineered
mer-kids waved to the sub as it moved past, but eventually, the
waters grew darker. A large object appeared on the vessel's sonar,
and soon, lights appeared beneath the murk. As they drew closer,
Marie and Charlie could see the luxury sub in all its glory.

The
vessel, Little Atlantis, was supposed to have a Greco-Roman fantasy
theme. Despite the fact archaeologists had drawn more connections
between Minoan civilization and Atlantis than any Greek city, the
popular impression had guided the minds behind the vessel's
aesthetic. The duo recalled the pictures they saw from the infolinks.
It was supposed to have entire segments and decks covered by
transparent coating, so the person inside could see outside, and
anyone passing by underwater would see the faux-marble "ruins"
that comprised the design of the decks. There were plenty of columns
and arches, all an anachronistic theme park version of historical
Greco-Roman architecture. Floodlights along the hull were supposed to
illuminate it. Instead of a conning tower, it was supposed to have a
giant statue of Neptune. So, when the vessel surfaced, it would
resemble Neptune surrounded by arches and columns to give the
impression of a "rising Atlantis."

That
was nothing like what Marie and Charlie saw. Instead of a vessel with
fake white marble columns, they were greeted by a sinister change in
the aesthetic. The ruins now had a sickly green color to them.
Instead of columns and arches, the mock ruins now were bent at odd
angles. There was little symmetry among the ruins. The lights
alongside the side of the ship now flashed erratic colors,
transitioning from red to green to yellow and back. Most disturbing,
however, was the conning tower. Like the rest of the ship, it now
had a sickly green color. Instead of the grinning Neptune, the head
area had been drastically changed. Instead of an old man with a
beard, it was now a tentacle-faced monstrosity. Wings had been added
to the back, and the hands and arms had been reworked into talons.

"Whoever
took over has a weird taste in decoration," Charlie mused. "They
turn Neptune into Cthulhu, and the Little
Atlantis into
the Little
R'lyeh."

"Could
it be Dok Bizarro?" Marie suggested. "You mentioned he was
obsessed with the book."

"It's
unlikely he'd go this crazy. That's just one book among many he
liked," Charlie continued. "Besides, if it was him, he'd be
turning everyone onboard into zomborgs and sailing it right into the
docks. Whoever's doing this has a definite taste for style."

"Let's
hope they don't have much substance," Marie replied. "I've
had enough stories of gimmicky criminals. The last thing we need's
one with a Cthulhu tentacle gimmick."

"Especially
if their mind's in the gutter while they're thinking of those
tentacles," Charlie muttered. Marie either did not seem to hear
him, or was ignoring him. He switched to manual control, and headed
for the bottom portion of the sub. There should be a mini-sub bay
there, and Alvarez had given them the access codes. The metal door
did not respond to his codes. So, he connected to his nanoimplant to
the sub's mini-computer, and tried brute-force guessing the code. A
few minutes later, the door opened, and the two headed for the
mini-sub bay. Normally, it would be where escape pods were stored in
the event of an emergency, and passenger mini-subs would be parked
for patrons with their own aquatic craft. A few amphibious passengers
were also able to use it as an access point. Now, it was opened
again, and the duo had free access to the sub. Above them was an air
pocket, and a well lit mini-sub bay.

Charlie
exited the craft first, opening the hatch. The nose of his P90 stuck
out, and he scanned the area around him. He had his nanoshield
protecting him from any would be attackers. Cautiously, he climbed
outside the sub and looked for any motion. Marie climbed up after
him, with her Mateba autorevolver out. Both stood back to back,
looking for any hostiles around the room. A few small submersibles
bobbed nearby, mainly ones for underwater sightseeing. A few manta
ray-like repair drones hung from the ceiling.

"Nothing
moving around so far," Charlie noted. "But when I cross reference
power use and heat sources, there's something using a lot of power
near the communications section of the bridge."

Charlie
walked through the door, keeping his P90 up and ready to fire. He
entered the automatic door, and looked down an empty hallway. There
was a green carpet, white walls, a dim light, and several doors on
either side. Charlie scanned for any signs of movement. Marie charged
in behind him, keeping watch on the side of the room that Charlie
wasn't.

Suddenly,
footsteps echoed through the hall. Charlie trained his gun on the
door. Something began to drip down from the ceiling. A strange fluid
dropped onto her hand. Marie looked up and saw something dripping
from the vent above. She pointed her gun up. Charlie followed her
motion, and looked at another vent above him. There was a trickle of
slimy substance from above. It was transparent, and a quick analysis
from his nano-probe showed it was mainly a soup of organic and
bio-nanotech components.

Before
they could react, more of it began pouring out of the vent. The
trickle turned into a torrent. Vents down the hallway were dripping.
The fluid began to congeal, connecting together. The substance began
to form into a central mass about a meter in height and twice as
wide. Eyeballs and teeth began to form, and then were consumed inside
the mass. Charlie grabbed Marie's hand and pulled her down the
hall.

"What
the hell is that thing?" Marie shot at it a few times.

"Tekeli-li!"
the bionanotech blob madly chattered back. "Tekeli-li!"

The
creature began to move, sticking out a pseudopod made of protoplasm
and pulling itself forward. It used the floor, walls, and ceiling,
using its bulk to fill the entire hallway. The detective duo darted
from danger.

"Shoggoth!"
Charlie shouted. "Some joker made a nanoschematic for it on HP
Lovecraft's birthday!"

"We
ain't at the South Pole, though!" Marie replied. She looked over
her shoulder. The shoggoth was moving surprisingly fast. She fired
her gun at it, but the blob merely harmlessly absorbed her bullets.
Charlie fired a few rounds blindly over his shoulder.

"Whoever
took over the sub seems to like Lovecraft too much!" Charlie
shouted. "I never would have planned to get attacked by a damn
shoggoth!"

Ahead
of them was a set of closed double doors. There were no alcoves in
the wall or open doorways they could enter. The distance between them
and the doors were rapidly decreasing. Marie's lungs were about
ready to give out. She could feel burns on the back of her fedora
coat, from where the monster's pseudopods had grazed her. She did
not want to think at what would happen if it grabbed her and started
digesting her.

Suddenly,
Charlie stopped, and threw up a nanoshield around him. He shot out a
nanotech pseudopod of his own, making contact with the shoggoth's
tentacle. A blast of electricity was seen, and the creature let out a
high-pitched shriek. It still had momentum, however, and prepared to
surround Charlie's shield.

"Ree!
Quick! Open the door panel! I'm going to try to hack it!" Charlie
shouted. The creature surrounded and subsumed Charlie's nanoshield.
He vanished under the torrent of shoggoth fluids.

Quickly,
Marie saw a door panel in front of her. She didn't have a hacking
tool or uplink with her. She also didn't have a lot of time. The
shoggoth was still coming towards her. It had surrounded Charlie, it
was coming to get her. The tentacles, pseudopods, and teeth began to
surround her on all sides. She was about to get utterly consumed. So,
she relied on one of the most proven techniques. She pulled out her
Mateba and shot the door panel. Strangely, both the doors opened. She
ran through, and the shoggoth kept following her. Half of it tried
pouring through each hole, and it reconstituted itself on the other
side.

Marie
kept running, but her strides were shorter and pace had slowed to a
jog. The creature was gaining. Suddenly, Marie saw another obstacle:
There was a pile of skeletons in front of her. They were piled high
enough to utterly block the corridor. It was either face the
shoggoth, or smash through the pile of bones. She ran towards the
bones, shielded her face with her hands, closed her eyes, and threw
herself at the bones.

Marie
realized she did not come into contact with the pile after an
instant. She turned around and saw the shoggoth had restrained her
with two pseudopods holding her legs on the ground. Charlie stood
next to the shoggoth, snickering to himself.

"Close,
but then I realized how easy these things were to hack," Charlie
replied. "Say 'hi' to our new friend!"

"You
managed to turn a nanotech shoggoth monster into a pet?" Marie's
face twisted in disbelief.

Charlie
stroked the creature's protoplasm, his hand creating gentle
indentations in the surface. Two eyes and teeth manifested nearby.
"Tekeli-li," the nanotech blob purred as the eyes turned towards
the two.

Charlie
nodded. "I got some sensory feedback from a few hours ago. Shoggy
here wasn't used for nice things."

"Like
those, maybe?" Marie pointed her thumb towards the pile of
skeletons. Of in the distance, Marie thought she heard some
footsteps.

"Yeah.
But they made Shoggy eat them. They ate most of the crew and
passengers, and mutated the rest," Charlie continued, as he
recalled the memories from the shoggoth. "Into something else from
Lovecraft."

"Let
me guess: those fish-man things from Innsmouth," Marie replied.
"The guys who worship the Esoteric Order of that fish man guy."

She
heard the steps getting louder. Marie quickly looked down the hall,
but saw nothing. The sound suddenly ceased.

"Yeah.
He mutated them into Deep Ones, but he had a few bio-engineered Deep
Ones with him from the start," Charlie continued. "He was already
aboard in disguise, and the Deep Ones met up with him over the
voyage. He nanofactured the shoggoth and more monsters afterwards."

"Who?
The perp?" Marie asked. "Why the hell would the perp go through
all this trouble and kill a bunch of people just for some tasteless
Lovecraft tribute?"

It
was then the pile of bones exploded outwards, and loathsome, bulbous
eyed fish-men charged through. They were well muscled, and had
flippers and fins in various places around their bodies. The
batrachian henchmen ran towards them, hissing and shouting words in
an unintelligible language. They emerged from the pile of bones like
creatures from a nightmare. Whoever had made them obviously did not
send them with benevolent intentions.

Charlie
opened fire with his P90, dropping one. Marie lined up two behind
each other and fired. Her round went straight through the first one,
and into the chest of the one right behind it. She pulled the trigger
again, but the autorevolver was empty. A pair of Deep Ones charged at
her. One telegraphed a hook punch, but Marie acted quicker. Her
Enhancer-glove covered fist socked the attacking fish-man in the
stomach,causing it to pause while Marie's other hand socked it in the
face. She brought both her fists down on its head, knocking it out.

Before
she could celebrate, she felt a set of cold, slippery hands wrapping
around her neck from behind. The second Deep One had got her. She
elbowed the creature in the stomach, but couldn't gain enough force
to land a solid hit. A wet, slippery hand wrapped around her throat.
She could see Charlie run out of ammo, and get tossed to the ground
by the Deep Ones. She tried struggling, but another Deep One punched
her in the stomach. The flow of oxygen was being cut off to her
brain. It could very well be the end, she realized.

Suddenly,
the choking arm around her neck went limp. The Deep One's body was
suddenly yanked back, and the Deep One that had punched her went
flying. Looking back, she could see the shoggoth's pseudopods
knocking the Deep Ones around. Some of the unlucky prone ones got
yanked back into the creature. The Deep Ones began shouting as they
were yanked back inside the creature. The shoggoth began dissolving
them. Their skin was ripped off layer by layer, and then their bones
were all that remained. The shoggoth excreted them out the rear. The
remaining Deep Ones tried to flee, but were cut down by a burst of
gunfire from Charlie's P90. He had reloaded in the confusion.

"Ree,
can I keep him?" Charlie asked. "I think he'll be useful!"

"Tekeli-li!"
the shoggoth chirped happily.

"Eh,
fine," Marie muttered as she reloaded. "Let's just find the perp
and get the hell off this tub. What did you say his name was?"

"So
far we've seen bioengineered Deep Ones, a shoggoth made of nanobots,
and a sub modified to look like R'lyeh," Marie replied. "And now
we've got someone dressing up as the Black Pharaoh himself? Someone's
been reading into this stuff too much."

"Let's
just get to the bridge, Ree. He's up there," Charlie pointed to a
set of stairs. "Or should be."

"Can
that blob even fit through the door?" Marie asked. "I mean, no
offense to ya, but you've got a lot of mass."

"Don't
you remember him chasing us, Ree?" Charlie added. "Shoggy can
dissolve into a puddle and even fit through vents if he needs to."

"Hey,
Shoggoth, mind leading the way?" Marie suggested. "That way, you
can eat any more mooks he throws at us."

Two
eyes and a grinning set of teeth materialized on the side of the
shoggoth that faced them, and grinned. "Tekeli-li!" it chirped in
agreement.

Shoggy
went up the stairs, with Charlie and Marie following. The stairs were
fairly wide, and the shoggoth had little difficulty climbing them. It
used its pseudopods to climb up the railings and sides of the walls.
The creatured moved as fast as they did while it chased them, and was
digesting bits of Deep One gore inside itself as it ascended the
stairs. While it did look strange, Marie realized that it was
definitely a useful pet.

They
finally got to the top of the stairs, and the shoggoth smashed
through a set of doors. Charlie and Marie looked around, and saw they
had probably just jumped from the frying pan to the fire. They stood
on the bridge of the sub. The bridge was covered by a transparent
covering, and they could see the massive Cthulhu statue towering
right above them. There were the dead bodies of the crew and
passengers scattered across the floor. A few consoles and instruments
were scattered around the bridge. The captain's seat was on a
slightly elevated chamber, accessible by ladder with an escape pod
nearby. It seemed as though some new machinery had been added to the
bridge recently. Nanomedical tubes had been brought onto the bridge
of the vessel, with figures bobbing inside them. Marie could see
grotesque humanoid figures with the heads of various beasts. Many of
them had been dressed in Egyptian garb.

"So
now we go from "Shadow Out of Innsmouth" to "Imprisoned with
the Pharaohs,"" Charlie muttered.

"Figures
I haven't read that one yet," Marie muttered. "Let's just find
this palooka and ventilate him."

"Hey,
got some movement in the captain's seat!" Charlie pointed his P90
upwards. "I'll cover, you flank! Shoggy, go protect Marie in case
those beast-people come out! Last thing I want to get attacked by are
some screwed up pod furries!"

They
saw a figure stand up in the captain's seat, and walk over a
catwalk towards the escape pod. He looked down and laughed
maniacally. Charlie had his P90 on him from one angle. Marie had her
Mateba pointing at him from another, taking cover behind a bank of
consoles. Shoggy oozed between her and the nearest pods. The laugh
was slow, deep, and sinister. It seemed to resonate in Marie as even
some sort of primal madness.

The
most notable thing about the man was that he was black. Not black in
the sense of someone with African ancestry or dark skin pigment, but
black in the literal sense. The figure was more a walking, amorphous
mass of darkness. His height and stature were that of a tall man, and
he had no face. His body had strange sources of illumination coming
from it. Looking closely, Marie could see small bits of light
scattered across the void that was his body. They resembled the night
sky, with stars, nebulas, and other cosmic objects. The effect was
probably just the result of a nanotech suit and holograms, but it was
certainly eerie.

"Oh
my God! He's full of stars!" Charlie shouted. He opened fire at
the Crawling Chaos, trying to get him to stop. Instead of moving,
Nyarlathotep simply materialized two bright red eyes and a mouth on
his face.

"Pathetic
humans!" he snickered, utterly unconcerned with gunfire. "This
statute of the Great Cthulhu has an antenna inside of it, shall rise
to the surface, and broadcast a virus to infect every AI, cyborg, and
augmented person in your city of ants! They will turn upon each
other, and the stars shall be right! The time of the Great Old Ones
is coming!"

Marie
put several rounds where his head should have been, but the bullets
did not even seem to physically make contact with him. Charlie tried
firing a burst at him, but the same thing happened. It was as if he
did not even regard the laws of physics. "Pathetic mortals!" he
continued walking towards the pod. "You may play at being the
masters of this world, but the Great Old Ones shall truly inherit
this world! My faithful minions, Knights of the Silver Twilight,
attack!"

With
that, the Crawling Chaos entered the escape pod, and locked the door
behind him. The pod doors opened up, and the beast-headed men came
out. They did not emerge unarmed. Some held devices resembling old
cameras, while others had strangely shaped scimitar-like blades. Many
had the heads of hawks and jackals. Most of their equipment seemed
like Egyptian head-dresses. Some held syringes of a glowing, bright
green fluid. Marie fired her autorevolver at one of the closest
pod-people, while Charlie riddled one with a sword at close range.
"Tekeli-li!" Shoggy shouted as he smashed two pod mutants with
pseudopodia.

Looking
up, Marie saw the escape pod detach, and the Crawling Chaos ascend
towards the surface. Marie noticed the sub was also surfacing, but
much more slowly than the pod. The light from the surface was growing
brighter. She ran for the controls, but one of the beast-men leveled
a camera at her. He fired it, firing a bolt of lightning. Quickly,
Marie took cover back under a console.

"Hey.
Charlie! We've got to stop this thing from broadcasting or
surfacing!" Marie shouted. "Think you can get to the captain's
controls?"

"No,
got two idiots with those Yithian lightning guns keeping me pinned!"
Charlie replied. "Can you and Shoggy take them out?"

"Hey,
Shoggy, Charlie needs help!" she shouted at the shoggoth.

"Tekeli-li!"
the shoggoth sounded as it charged through the bridge to get to
Charlie. It plowed over two swordsmen, quickly absorbing them. He was
pinned behind a bank of consoles by two beast-men with camera-like
lightning projectors. One of the gunners turned towards the shoggoth
and fired several bolts at Shoggy. The blob let out a wounded,
"Tekeli-li!" before smashing towards the gunner in wounded
desperation. The second lightning gunner fired at the shoggoth,
firing bolts as it hissed. The smell of burning ozone filled the air.
The shoggoth was covered with burns. Just then, the two gunners fell
dead. Charlie had shot them while they were distracted.

"No
one hurts my Shoggy and gets away with it!" he shouted.

Marie
had tried to use the distraction to advance. She made it to the
ladder, but saw the beast men had changed tactics. Some of them were
injecting the green reagent into the many corpses on the bridge. The
corpses then shuffled forwards, moving towards the wounded shoggoth
and pinned Charlie. Marie fired a round at one of the re-animators,
and then another who tried to re-animate his fallen comrade. She
climbed up the ladder as fast as she could move, narrowly missing a
zombie biting her leg. She put a bullet through the zombie's brain
in retribution. Thankfully, none of the beast-men with the lightning
guns seemed to notice, as they could electrocute the entire metal
ladder.

Once
on top of the room, she ran sprinted down the catwalk toward's the
captain's controls. She interfaced wirelessly with the controls,
trying to find out how to make it stop from ascending. The computer
locked her out. The Crawling Chaos had tried to ensure no one would
hack into it. So, she shot it. Immediately, the ballast tanks evened
out, and remained at their current depth. With the city-wide threat
neutralized, she focused on the more immediate concerns. Charlie and
Shoggy were pinned by beast-men with swords, lightning guns, and
zombies. She needed to help them out.

Marie
reloaded, ran away from the captain's controls, and jumped right
back into the fray. She fired twice with her pistol, shooting a
hawk-headed man aiming a lightning gun at her. Her first shot missed,
and second one went right between his eyes. She landed on top a rack
of servers, with a bunch of hungry zombies under her. A beast-man
fired a bolt at her, singing her hair. She fired a round in reply,
dropping the beastman with lightning gun.

"Hey,
Charlie! Think you can help me out a bit?" Marie shouted.

"Bit
busy here!" Charlie relied. "Say, any more of those lightning
gunners still out there?"

"Don't
see any! Just swordsmen and zombies!" Marie said as she surveyed
the crowd.

"Hear
that, Shoggy? Those nasty bastards with the lightning guns are dead!"
Charlie shouted to his new friend.

"Tekeli-li!"
the creature cheered as it emerged from behind a wall with a
vengeance. It began to subsume some of the nearest swordsmen, who
tried to put some of the zombies between them and the shoggoth. The
shoggoth's bulk moved fast across the bridge, consuming the hapless
zombies and swordsmen in the way. The shoggoth consumed all the
zombies surrounding the server rack that Marie was standing on. The
shoggoth formed part of its body into stairs, leading down to the
floor. Looking down, she could see some struggling zombies and
swordsmen still getting dissolved. So, she headed down the stairs,
trying not to look at Shoggy eating too much.

Suddenly,
a swordsman jumped up at her from behind a console, but she shot him
in the face before he could get up. "Stay down!" Marie shouted.
"I've had enough with you guys today!"

Looking
around, Charlie and Marie found no more hostiles. Shoggy, in the
meantime, was eating well. Both sat on the bridge, establishing a
backdoor communications channel with the NCPD. They didn't want to
risk infecting the city with any virus that the Crawling Chaos had
left.

"Say,
Charlie," Marie mused. "This is going to be fun to explain to
Alvarez. The sub was taken over by creatures from Lovecraft stories,
lead by some joker who thinks he's Nyarlathotep."

"And
we prevented Cthulhu from rising," Charlie mused. "Not a bad day.
We didn't even have to ram him this time."

"What
are we going to go with him?" Marie pointed to Shoggy. "I don't
plan on bringing him along."

"I
do," Charlie grinned. "It'll be nice to have a shoggoth around
the apartment! Think of how much easier cleaning will be! And he can
adjust himself to fit almost any size and shape!"

"Tekeli-li!"
Shoggy chirped as he assumed the shape of a sofa.

"Eh,
he's your pet, and you clean up after him," Marie replied. "I
just want to get back home and get back to reading that book over a
nice cup of joe."

"Nah,
I just want to finish it. I was right in the middle of "The
Temple," when we got this job," Marie replied. "I'm just glad
the doors and consoles here respond so well to being shot."

"Who
knows what he did to the wiring?" Charlie shrugged.

Marie
also shrugged. Shoggy, meantime, manufactured and excreted an object.
A pseudopod extended, and handed it to Marie. It was a cup of coffee.
Shrugging, Marie grabbed the handle. It was insulated, and the coffee
was nice and hot. It was a bit plain, but nothing some training and
the proper nanoschematics couldn't fix. Looking again at the nanotech
blob monster, Marie recalled that sometimes, the best things weren't
planned.

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